Sup all, just read this book recently. Its basically a book telling you what to do if you want to have a comfortable retirement and/or to achieve financial freedom (LEGALLY and REALISTICALLY) lol. Comfortable means at least a millionaire.

The thing they really STRESS is to "pay yourself first" which means to automatically deduct a % of your pay towards an interest bearing savings program/funds. The book suggests that if you are in your 20's then you can start with 3-5%. Then once you become comfortable to increase that amount to about 10-15%.

The book also talks about the "Latte Factor" which means all the little but uneccessary DAILY expenses some may incur during a day. IE = $5 cup of coffee or $10+ lunches. etc.

The book also points out how when you see a man/woman driving a new sports car and wearing an expensive watch and has nice clothes it doesnt automatically mean that they are RICH. It could just mean that they are in serious Debt. Thats why we see some celebrities filing bankruptcy. If you make $20 million it doesnt mean that you can SPEND $40 mil on CREDIT..lol

So how many people here are actually SAVING? just curious. or how many actually cares about their financial future???

 

Bach right? I read one of his books. Loved it!

 

$10+ lunches.

 

Sounds like a good read.

And, being from the banking business, I can attest to the 'rich' people who really only 'look' rich...cause they're loaded in debt. On paper they're broke as a spoke!

It's a problem more widespread than you think.

 

Oh yeah, and I'm addicted to saving. I just like to know that I can take care of myself financially in case of an emergency.

 

I'm trying to work out a plan to put a certain % of my paycheck into a high yeild savings account (ING, maybe?). I'll start doing this a month or two after i start working in July. I havn't given much thought to the specifics yet, but i'm doing my best to come up with a plan.

 

Same here.

I need to break that habit.

10 x 5 x 52 = $2600 a year.

 

"CAPITALONE - WHAT'S IN YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR WALLET!"

 

Without a doubt - adjust your living standards based on maxing out your 401k, building up some liquid savings and possible an IRA if you can. You'd be surprised how well you can live when you don't have your max net income going into your checking account available for spending.

I'd rather buy a nice used car, keep it for 5+ yrs and retire early than vice versa, for instance. If you can do both, then more power to you. But most cannot. Like you said, many people who look rich are living off borrowed money and are worse off than you and me.

 

Emigrant Direct is at 3% on their savings account right now - ING is 2.35% Emigrant is variable, so it can change.

But that's better than most short-term CDs

 

Can this be moved to the money & investing forum so I don't have to be reminded of how little savings I have?

 

Another thing I tell others is Citi's 5% cash back on gas and groceries, maxed out at $300/yr cash back. Some investments don't even yield 5%, so that is easy money. I got my wife and me separate cards so we can get even more back. Might as well, because we buy gasoline and groceries all the time.

$300 here, $100 there all adds up - jam that money into an IRA as if you never saw it and you are ahead of the game.

 

I do it... My Roth IRA gets the max contribution each year, and I should hit the max on my 401K when I get my raise in May. I have to set up an appointment with my adviser in May to go redo my portfolio (IRA, 401, etc)...

The "Millionaire Next Door" is a similiar book. One of the chapter titles is "You are not what you drive".

 

Andrew Tobias' book I am reading falls under this category.

BTW Green, what company do you have as your advisor?

 

im saving to buy a house

 

wife and i are on a automated "pay yourself first" plan. we use the following scenario...the numerical values are not actual. after maxing our 401(k), we automatically transfer X amount (let's just say 1K) into our joint savings every month. we have additional monthly auto transfers that will transfer $900 of that into our joint checking, an account linked to our ING Direct savings. we setup weekly transfers of $175 to pull money from our joint checking to the ING savings. that leaves $200 per month that we use to pay down our mortgage loan.

so, at the end of the month...~$700 in ING savings, $100 in our joint savings, $200 to pay down mortgage. once we accumulate a good amount in ING, we'll use it to purchase stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, or open up CDs.

in the short future, we plan on setting up 529 college savings plans for the kid(s).

 

I have a budget that i stick to pretty well. Occasionally i'll splurge - for instance i didn't plan to dump $200 on a PS2 and GT4, but, eh, shit happens . I know about what i save every month. Half of that goes into accounts other than my savings account.

I think i'd want to kill myself if i somehow came out with a $0 increase in my total savings at the end of the month. I don't make a ton but i'm still able to keep from spending over half of it. I don't know how my friends that live paycheck to paycheck, blowing any extra cash they have on junk they don't really need, do it.

 

401k baby

 

I was saving more before my latest insurance increase, but I still do my retirement and roth IRA monthly. I don't max out anything, but I will begin to push more towards savings next year once my auto insurance drops below 6k a year.

 

That was a pretty good book. He points out many common sense ideas that will help in the long run

 

Good to hear that a few people are saving and have some sort of plan. Im currently on a plan where they deduct 20% of my biweekly pay towards investments (10% company stock (IBM) at a discounted price of course, and another 10% to a group of funds low risk, steady growth). I also contribute to a pension plan.

I can afford to take out 20% since i still live with my parents and my current fixed expenses are only car payment/insurance/CELL/INTERNET/credit cards.

I plan to close one credit card after paying it off and lower the limit on the remaining 2. Interest rates on these things are no joke.. 18.9%!! WTF

ABREECE - PS2 and GT4.. thats NOT an expense..its a NECCESSITY =) hehe.

 

BTW, if you can, max out your 401k then go to an IRA. Might as well get the benefits of preparing for retirment AND lowering your taxable income at the same time.

 

I think I read "Smart Women Finish Rich" I'm combing that with Wendy William's theory of having a "f uck you fund"

 

I max out my 401k every year, put my yearly contributions to a roth every january, and 100% of my "paycheck' goes straight into a fidelity brokerage account, from which every other week I buy mutual funds (I'm not a huge mutual fund fan but they do provide no-fee transactions so they're very liquid). Then I sell portions of the mutual funds as I need the money to spend it. Every 2 months or so I take the money I've saved up and won't be spending soon and get it out of a mutual fund and straight into a stock. Putting all of ones money in a stock account isn't for everyone (I have no wife, no kids...if the market crashed tommorrow I'd still have a job etc) but in the long term I think keeping a very large percent of my money in stocks is going to be huge.
Anyways, people laugh when I tell them, but I'm dead serious about this: My goal is by the age of 45 to have enough money saved up such that I don't have to work to pay the bills (I may still want to work but more so from personal choice as opposed to having to do so to afford the mortgage).

 

Oh yes, and I've got the same citi credit card that Adam mentioned. I think its one of the best (if not the best) rewards credit card. 5% of the gas/groceries. Atleast 1% on everything else.

 

Wife and I both max 401Ks and Roth IRAs. I have a rolloever 401K account that I contribute to and we also put money into personal accounts; for a rainy day, future kids education, my ferarri...

 

We have automatic deductions to savings accounts for us, the same for our son's savings account, a 529 plan for him, 401Ks(matching up to 4% for my company). We readjusted our spending habits in preparation for my starting a new job that involved a lesser salary (but is a 1000% better), so the transition itself wasn't so financially difficult. We track pretty much all of our spending on Quicken, so we can see all of our upcoming expenses and can readjust from there.

 

Small 2 man local company (on my aunts recomemdation)... I'm not sure if I'll stick with this guy forever or jump to one of the big companies...

 

Pay off credit cards first. Once balance = 0 don't run them up any more. After that, pay yourself first = happy you.

 

Dude, your avatar is freakin' hilarious!

 

Thanks.
PS- i dont have a penis

 

lol... It's always funny when you have to mention that... I'm glad I figured it out long ago (when you dated a porn star )

 

OOOOPS! LOL!

 

Haha, I think I should get a new name that has girl, sexy, cute, or sparky in it and people would know right off the bat.

 

Grrrl seems to be cool... and add some ~*xoxo*~ stuff to it too

~*GreenMonsterGrrl*~

 

sounds dirty

 

I'm saving a pretty fair amount.

I crunch some numbers once a month, and figure out how much 'fun' money I have for the next month. And I stick to that number religiously. The rest went to dept repayment (while I had some), and right now it's just going into savings. Probably for whenever I decide to get a house.

As soon as you can, you should start dumping money into a 401k/roth. I don't see how people can have enough for your retirement years if you don't do that.

 

Anyone know what book this thread is based on? I did a search for "pay yourself first" on amazon and it results in a few of them. Is it "The Automatic Millionaire" by Bach?

LOL......One of which is "Pay Yourself First: The African American Guide to Financial Success and Security ".....does this mean because I'm asian that this won't help me out????

I really need to start doing more with my money cause I seem to be pissing it all away except for my 401k and my automatic deduction of a small amount into a separate account.

Maybe its just my quarter life crisis.

 

I think it's about how to lobby effectively for reparations, and then advice on how to spend the reparation money.

IB